Sunday, January 28, 2018

Good news: A federal judge breathes new life into D.C. and Maryland's emoluments suit against Trump

By Rebecca Pilar Buckwalter Poza 
Friday Jan 26, 2018 · 12:26 PM EST

Last June, the attorneys general for the District of Columbia and Maryland filed suit against President Donald J. Trump for violating constitutional prohibitions against accepting gifts or benefits from other governments, including state governments, referred to as the foreign and domestic emoluments clauses.

On Thursday, Judge Peter Messitte, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, heard initial arguments from the Justice Department and D.C. and Maryland’s AGs. Consensus is, he’s open to what D.C. and Maryland have to say.

The complaint … says in part that the Trump International Hotel in Washington diverts customers from businesses that the District of Columbia or Maryland license, tax or own, depriving them of revenue. Lawyers for the plaintiffs urged Judge Messitte to allow the case to proceed to discovery and allow them to obtain financial records of Mr. Trump’s Washington hotel.

An earlier effort to hold Trump accountable for accepting emoluments in court augured poorly for this line of argument. A New York federal district court judge, Judge George Daniels, accepted the Justice Department’s argument that the Emoluments Clause should be enforced through political rather than judicial means and declined to permit a trial.

Read more
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/1/26/1736209/-Good-news-for-D-C-and-Maryland-s-suit-against-Trump?detail=facebook

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